Ruge
by ginchy-amanda
Summary: Set in my "Echoes of Always" universe, this is Luke and Mara's first date, as described in chapter 16 of EoA. New-reader friendly as this is basically just an alternate universe romance for L/M.


**TITLE:** Ruge

**RATING: ** PG. This was originally posted elsewhere with an NC-17 rating. I will say that I removed about 2500 words of smut to make this version. I'm not comfortable posting anything that strong here, but you can find it on the Luke and Mara livejournal community if you're over 18 and like that sort of thing.

**DISCLAIMER: ** Star Wars and these wonderful characters belong to Lucasfilm and Disney. That is still a 'wow' thing to type. ;)

**NOTE:** As I'm going to start posting 200 Proposals soon (next week?), I thought I would post this, since it's Luke and Mara's first 'date' from the 'Echoes of Always' Universe. This, and '200' are basically just romance, since I put y'all through so much emotional and bittersweet angst. ;) To set the scene for this, and for '200' here is an excerpt from Chapter 16 of EoA:

_[Luke] grinned his thanks and popped open the bottle of Ruge, struggling a little to get the cork out of the bottle's neck. Mara laughed and he smiled in reaction, loving the sound from her, so rare. "What?" He shook off his sad thoughts about Leia, concentrating only on the lovely sounds of Mara's laugh and the sight of her smile._

"Nothing, it just… well, this reminds me of my first date with Luke."

"You drank Ruge on your first date? No wonder Betrys was born on your wedding night."

"I love when you try to act roguish," Mara smirked. "And we dated for more than a year before I got pregnant. Anyway, we did have Ruge that first night, and Luke struggled to get it open, just like you are now. The cork finally came out, along with most of the bottle. He was fast enough to keep it from hitting him, but my rug…" Mara rolled her eyes, but was smiling as if the memories didn't hurt as much this time. "He was so embarrassed." She took the bottle and pulled the cork out expertly, pouring them each a glass.

Luke tried to imagine the night in his mind, but found that he couldn't. He and Mara had been light years from a date at that time in his galaxy. The Reborn Emperor and the opening of the Academy had been foremost in his mind. "Mara and I never really dated. I asked her to marry me before we could date."

"Luke liked to joke that he had to ask me to marry him over two hundred times before I was ready." Mara smiled ruefully.

"Two hundred times? And you didn't kill him?"

She smirked. "No, eventually he wore me down…or Betrys and I were just so sick of hearing him ask. It was really sort of a joke between us. I got pregnant before anyone even knew we were dating, and…well, it was just something he would ask me every day of my pregnancy. Obviously it worked out eventually.[…]"

And now, **Ruge**.

It was the flash that alerted them. Discrete and almost imperceptible, it originated from a corner booth, and two sets of eyes were immediately tracking the sleemo that had taken the shot.

Luke Skywalker sighed and waved his hand just slightly in the photog's direction. "That should take care of it, I think." He smiled ruefully at his dinner partner. "I'm sorry about that, Mara."

Mara Jade rolled her eyes. "You were sorry the first three times," she said. "Now I think it's time for them to be sorry." She started to push up from the table.

"Mara." Luke's voice was mild, if amused.

Looking over at him, she raised a brow. "I was just going to have a little chat with him."

"A little chat? I've been on the receiving end of your little chats. I'm performing a public service by keeping you from having one with him." He turned and glared in the direction of the Dug, who didn't seem to get the message and grinned back. Luke sighed. He turned again and pushed at the food on his plate, half finished.

Mara scoffed good naturedly then frowned at the defeated set of his shoulders. And suddenly she felt badly for Skywalker. He couldn't even have a meal in public without the paparazzi bots following him, hounding him for his holo and asking invasive questions. It made him uncomfortable and Mara didn't like that.

_She_was the only one that was allowed to make him uncomfortable.

The thought made her smirk. It was true that she enjoyed putting the Jedi off balance. Ever since he had given her his father's lightsaber and she had felt it incumbent on her to lighten the mood, she had taken the chance to bait him. Of course, she never expected to be sharing a meal with him. Never expected to have shared meals with him in the past. But when she had run into him several days after their rooftop conversation and he has asked her if she had eaten yet, she had said 'no' before she could realize what she had done. Almost before she could realize what was happening they had found themselves in some hole in the wall eatery, talking about Mara's new duties and Luke's quest to reclaim the Jedi Temple. And then hours had passed. So many hours, in fact, that the serving droid asked them to leave, unless they were willing to pay for an evening meal. Luke had almost seemed tempted, but she had risen, shocked to have spent so long in his presence, without an agenda or galactic crisis on hand.

And now, here they were again, sharing another meal after running into one another in the corridors of the Palace. Only this time their presence had been noticed: more accurately, Luke's presence had been noted. Coruscant's holofilm industry had fled during the war and hadn't really set-up shop again. War heroes were the new stars, Luke foremost of them, with his blond hair and bright grin. He was constantly dogged by them, though generally adept at shaking them off. Except tonight, of course.

Mara frowned again. Luke was different now than he had been just a few moments before, the carefree farmboy disappearing behind an invisible wall that he seemed to be erecting for the galaxy at large to view. She didn't like it. "Look, Skywalker-"

His eyes met hers over the table. "Ready to call it an evening?"

"Yeah." She tossed her napkin and a credchip on the table. She regarded him for a moment, at the resolute set to his shoulders. She sighed. "But you could come up to my place… it's only a block away."

"Yeah?" He stood, too, and tossed another chip on the table, covering his half of the meal.

"No, I was just talking to hear myself speak." She headed toward the door of the restaurant and stepped out onto the skywalk.

"I knew it," Luke's voice came from behind her.

"Knew what?" She turned and found herself disconcerted to be so close to him, close enough to catch his warm scent. She breathed it in deeply before realizing what she was doing and exhaling sharply.

"That you like to talk to hear yourself speak." He grinned, entirely too pleased with himself.

Mara rolled her eyes but couldn't stop the twitch of amusement at her mouth. "Careful or I'll change my mind."

"I'll be very careful then." His voice was low, intimate, and almost lost in the chaos of the crowds around them.

"Skywalker-" Her stomach was a jumbled mess, but she didn't know what to say.

He leaned in even closer. "I'm going to go around to my place to throw them off guard. I'll double back and be at your place in about twenty minutes."

"I could make that walk in ten," she said, just to rile him.

But a flash of his grin was the only reaction she saw as he turned and melded in with the crowd. She let out a sigh and turned to the paparazzo that had followed them out. "Must be a slow night if you're following me."

"Nothing to show for it." He held up his broken camera.

"Ah, that's too bad. You want a broken hand to go along with it?" The Dug's eyes widened and he backed away. Mara half-smiled. It was good to threaten somebody who had a healthy respect for it.

.

.

.

Mara stalked through the door to her suite, eyes immediately tracking around the sparse furnishings to find anything out of place. The suite was just as she had left it, bare walls just darkening with the evening light. She stripped off her jacket and put it away, trying not to think about the fact that she had just invited Luke Skywalker to her apartment.

It was insane, this friendship that had sprung up between them. It had started as a grudging respect that was no longer quite so grudging. She did respect Luke. He was complicated and flawed but so inherently good that she sometimes had trouble believing he was for real. Even now that she knew he _was_for real she still had trouble with it.

Spending time with him was nice, though. She had to admit that to herself, even if she would rather be eviscerated than admit it to anyone else. He was amusing in a way she suspected most of the galaxy wouldn't expect. He had a dark humor that was at odds with the sheer brightness he exuded and she found that she liked that dichotomy.

In her darkened kitchen Mara frowned, wondering if she should put on a pot of caf. She knew that Skywalker had a weakness for hot chocolate but she didn't have any on hand. It was an expensive and exotic drink, and though she, too, liked chocolate, she preferred it in other forms. She decided to go with caf, if for no other reason than to give them something to do, and was just pulling the caf maker toward her on the counter when her door announcer rang. She could feel Luke's overwhelming presence on the other side, and picked up a hint of urgency. Walking to the door, she palmed it open for him.

"Hey." His grin was at odds with his urgency as he darted in the door.

"They still after you?" Mara shook her head at him, looking out into the hallway, expecting a crowd to be following him.

"Just dodged a few paparazzi bots," he explained, shrugging out of his jacket as he sighed. "I'm not sure what's so interesting about watching me walk from my suite to your apartment."

Mara smirked. "That makes two of us."

He rolled his eyes. "Cute," he said, stealing her line. "Anyway, it's…" He gestured as if to say 'it's over now'. And he seemed calmer now that he was in the apartment. Less on guard, his stance looser, freer. "Thanks for inviting me up." His eyes tracked around the apartment. "I think you have the same floor plan as me." He held out a bottle of wine. "For you."

"You caught me right as I was going to put on caf," she said, accepting the bottle. "But this looks better." Her eyes widened as she read the label. "Stang, Skywalker! Do you know what this is?"

"Alderaanian Ruge." He shrugged somewhat uncomfortably. "Leia gave it to me for a special occasion."

"I would say so." She thrust the bottle back at him. "Benduday at my apartment doesn't count as a special occasion."

"I've never been here before, so it's special to me." He made no move to take the bottle back.

"Do you understand how expensive this stuff is, Skywalker?"

"Mara." His voice was quiet. "I want to share the wine with you, that's why I brought it."

She regarded him as the quiet moment lengthened between them. She took in his wind ruffled hair, and bright, earnest eyes. Any woman in the galaxy would kill to be in her place at that moment, to have Luke Skywalker in her apartment bearing an outrageously expensive bottle of wine. "Skywalker…" She trailed off, suddenly uncomfortable. Just what were they playing at? She felt the need to clarify. "This isn't… I mean to say that this isn't a-"

"A date?" He filled in for her, a hint of a smile playing at his lips.

She suddenly very much wanted to cream that smile off his face. "Right." Taking a deep breath, she once more looked at the bottle. "But...I do want a drink."

Luke grinned. "Me too."

.

.

.

"So," Luke said, leaning in to take the bottle back from her. His fingers lightly brushed hers and she stared at his hands as they moved away. She felt surreal, both at the tingle in her fingers from his light brush and at merely the fact that he was actually standing in her apartment. No one had ever been in her suite but her, and certainly the last person she ever expected to invite home was Luke Skywalker.

"So?" The repeated word sounded weak coming from her mouth and she cleared her throat to hide it.

He smiled. "I'll open this if you want to get the glasses?"

"I thought we'd just pass the bottle."

"…Really?"

Mara rolled her eyes heavenward. "Save me from farmboys," she muttered. But she felt more balanced. Playful teasing had become a new norm for them, and she found that it was easy to use as a crutch if things became too awkward.

His cheeks had warmed, but he gave her that grin that the holoreporters so desperately wanted on their programming. "Just get the glasses, Jade."

"Careful, buddy boy. You're starting to sound snippy." But she gave him a half-smile as she went into the kitchen.

"Can't think where I learned that."

He gave her an innocent look when she glared at him out of the kitchen door. She watched him fiddle with the cork on the bottle for a moment before rising up on her toes to reach for the only two wine goblets she owned. The glasses were further back than she thought and she pressed her body into the move, finally grasping them just as the pop of the bottle's cork sounded behind her.

Along with, "Woah!"

She quickly turned to see Luke holding the bottle out in front of him, sticky trails of red hitting her carpet. Luke's face matched the stain and she set the goblets on the counter a little harder than necessary. She hated a mess.

"Mara." She looked up to find Luke staring at her, his cheeks still flushed. "I'm so sorry. I'll clean it up for you or pay to have it done." He gingerly took the bottle and rushed into the kitchen with it, fast enough not to leave a trail behind him.

Mara tried to tamp down her annoyance and picked up a dish towel. He hadn't meant to spill the wine, after all. And one look at his red cheeks actually made her stomach twist slightly, in a feeling that she realized was one of compassion. She mentally rolled her eyes. Skywalker really was rubbing off on her. She reached out a hand and brushed his this time, taking the bottle from him and wiping it clean. "Don't worry about it." At his stunned look, she puffed out a laugh. "Seriously. I have a droid that can clean it." She poured two glasses of the ruby dark liquid and held one out to him.

He seemed relieved and reached to take it, but she pulled it back slightly at the last minute. "Can I trust you with this on the carpet?"

He laughed, his stance easing and the embarrassment falling from his face. "I'll be a good boy."

"Promises, promises," Mara mocked, handing him the glass. She gestured for him to head out into the living room, and smirked as he gingerly stepped over the stain. She'd be holding _that_over his head for a long time to come.

.

.

An hour later found most of the bottle of Ruge consumed, but Mara reached for it to pour herself another half a glass. "You'll have to thank Leia for this gift."

"Already done."

"I meant from me." Mara rolled her eyes at him.

"Mara Jade does 'thank yous'?" Luke said with feigned incredulity.

"Well, not for _you_..."

Luke laughed and took a sip from his glass. She shifted on the leg underneath her as she contemplated him, wondering what to say next. The last hour had been interesting, hearing stories from him of the Rebellion and of flying in Rogue Squadron. She had listened to him, not speaking much, genuinely interested. She had only known a spin of his life for so long that it was fascinating to hear how actual events had unfolded.

As she regarded him she realized that he looked good in the low light of her living room. Better than good. His hair gleamed in the dull light, and the shadow brought his strong jaw into stark relief. She tried to drag her eyes away, but found that they kept straying back. She watched as he took one last sip of his wine and followed the line of his throat, watching it work with his swallow. Suddenly her mouth was a little dry. She licked at her lips distractedly, disconcerted at her reaction.

"...morning?"

"Hm?" Mara drug her attention from his throat, forcing herself to look into his eyes. He had asked a question. She tracked backward in her mind. "Oh, an Alliance meeting in the morning?" No, not tomorrow."

"Good." He grinned that wide grin of his, and her stomach twisted again, but not from compassion this time. "I'm having a great time, Mara. I'm really glad you invited me up."

"I...me too," she admitted, surprised to find that she _wasn't _surprised she felt that way.

His eyes lit up, and he licked moisture from his lower lip. Her eyes locked with his and a charge ran through her. Luke apparently noticed it, too, because he broke the gaze awkwardly and focused instead on his newly empty goblet. "Oh," he said, picking it up. "Is there any left?"

Mara glanced at the bottle, situated about halfway between them on the caf table. Almost as if she could see future events unfolding, she knew that if she reached for the bottle that he would, too, and their hands would meet. She would then look into his eyes and... She didn't want to over-think it. Her life had been judged by what needed to be done for so long now. She suddenly found that all she really wanted to do was _feel_.

Almost as if propelled and with blood pounding in her ears, she reached forward, grasping the bottle by the neck just as Luke's hand reached for it, too, as she had known he would. His hand closed momentarily over hers and Mara gasped at the light touch. She stared at the bottle for a moment, knowing what she would see when she looked up.

Sure enough, intense blue eyes were trained on her and she met them with her own steady gaze. The atmosphere in the room had changed, and Mara's voice seemed far too loud when she dropped her gaze to his lips and spoke. "Luke?"

She wasn't exactly sure what she was asking. She watched his bottom lip as it parted from the upper one to answer her, but suddenly she wasn't interested in hearing what he had to say. There was a whole new question she wanted to ask, in a very different way. She pulled her hand from under his on the bottle, pushing it out of the way. She raised her hand hesitantly to his cheek, wondering at herself and at what she was doing. But she didn't want to stop.

And then she didn't want to think any longer as she bridged the distance between them and answered her question by kissing him.

.  
.

.

He stiffened for a moment, drawing back almost instinctively. His lips were moist from the Ruge, so soft under hers. She tilted her head just slightly to apply more pressure and Luke's hesitation melted. His lips slanted back, sliding over hers with a sensuous brush that sent a shiver of anticipation through her body. Her fingers combed their way into his hair, and he sighed against her, his lips parting just slightly so that the hint of moisture met her mouth.

The blood was still roaring in her ears, but the tingling in her body made up for it. She had wanted to feel and he was making that happen, even with a kiss that was still very much innocent. Luke's arm came to rest around her waist and he pulled her closer, falling back onto the couch arm and taking her with him. She pulled back just slightly to look down at him, finding a heated gaze staring back at her. His mouth opened as if he were going to ask her something, ask her what they were doing. But this time his gaze dropped to her mouth and he seemed to think better of it. This time, he kissed her.

It started off the same as the other kiss, alluring but innocent, their lips learning the contours and feel of each other. With a tiny moan, Mara sought to part his lips, to deepen the kiss. She wasn't disappointed because Luke immediately granted her unspoken request. The kiss went from soft and innocent to aggressive and sexual almost before Mara realized what was happening.

She sighed into his mouth and shifted to straddle him. His hands plunged into her hair as the kiss continued. He pulled away with a ragged gasp and moved her head so that his lips could follow her jaw, nibbling slightly until he reached her ear. She moaned aloud before she could stop herself and the moan seemed to break Skywalker's stride. He paused and breathed slightly into her ear before speaking quietly. "Is this really happening, Mara?"

Her mind was blank of any answers. She knew what he was really asking, but she didn't want to think of morning afters, of regrets or recriminations. She still wanted to feel...and now, to touch. Her only answer was to trace his full lips with her finger, trailing it over his chin to drop to his chest, wandering over the muscled contours hidden by his black tunic. She wandered down his chest and pushed up his shirt, eyeing the golden skin above the band of his trousers, thinking abstractedly that she had never thought to see his navel. She brushed her fingers there and he shivered slightly, reaching down to grab her arms and pull her into another heated kiss.

He moaned into her mouth and the sound startled her, giving her clarity that she was missing before. She remembered just who she was kissing and just what he was doing to her and what could occur between them if things continued as they were. She abruptly pulled away from him, gasping for breath.

"I can't do this," she panted, pushing back on the couch, away from him. She breathed hard from her mouth and tried not to think about the fact that she had been the aggressor.

"Why not?" He looked dazed, his mouth swollen and his shirt still riding up where she had uncovered his stomach.

"Why… why not? Stars, Skywalker, I wanted to murder you not so long ago."

But Luke wasn't falling for her attempt to unbalance him. He moved his hand to cup her shoulder, instead. Leaning in, he breathed warm breath against her lips. His voice dropped to a whisper. "What about now?" He brushed his mouth carefully across hers again. "Do you want to kill me now?"

Mara pushed him back so that she could regard him, fully intending to tell him that yes; he was still on her hit list, when she noticed the deepening color of his eyes, the challenge there in those blue depths. She realized then that he knew what she was doing and didn't intend to let her do it. And beyond all of that, she realized that the thrum in her body meant that she still wanted to feel.

"I'll kill you later," she murmured, making her choice and kissing him again.

He pulled away and chuckled lowly, the sound so intimate and foreign coming from him that she shivered. "I'll keep that in mind..."

But to Mara the intimate tone of his voice, though sexy, was dangerous, and hinted at something more between them. If they were going to do this, she wanted it to be raw and quick, to ease her need without adding to her burden. She ran her nails up under his shirt, tracing them over the lines of his back, kissing him and taking in the hint of Ruge still there in his mouth. There would be time for recrimination later, but for now, all she wanted to do was feel.

.

.

.

She was still breathing hard long minutes later, trying to recapture her mind and her body, as both seemed to have abandoned her. Skywalker was heavy against her, but before she could move she felt a mergence of her mind with Luke's, and she knew then _his _pleasure, _his_ satisfaction, _his_want of her... and it felt so good and so right and so...

Mara Jade didn't do scared.

Gasping, but not from pleasure this time, she yanked her mind back into her own self. She was panting for breath and knew her eyes were wide, but she was _not _scared.

She was livid.

"What the hell was that?" She rounded on Luke. "What did you do to me?"

He looked like he'd been slapped, and not just because of the flushed color in his cheeks. "What did I...? Mara, that was _amazing_..." He was gasping for breath, looking tired but elated and in awe of what had just occurred.

She swallowed hard, finding the look on his face too naked and exposed for her to handle. "I can't do this."

"What?"

Still, she didn't look at him. She wrapped her arms around her chest, instead. "I need you to leave."

"Leave?" He tried to use his finger to lift her chin. "Mara, talk to me. After what we've just experienced I would think that you could at least do that."

She made a great show of looking at him, trying to ignore his naked shoulders and the hurt in his eyes. "I'm speaking but you're not listening. Please leave." She felt itchy and strange and ready for him to go. "Skywalker..."

He sighed. "You're scared."

"I'm not going to let you bait me. Just, just go."

"Bait you?" Luke sighed. "Mara, I just want to talk to you."

"And I just want you to leave, Skywalker." She stood from the couch and reached for her pants. She grabbed up his clothing and thrust it at him.

He took the clothes, but didn't put them on. He touched her arm instead. "Mara-"

She jerked her arm back. "Skywalker," she clenched her fingers into a fist and looked up into his face. "Please..."

The tension melted from his face with her words, replaced by that look of compassion that usually drove her mad. But seeing it now, so at odds with his naked body, only made her stomach jumble into those confusing knots again.

His hand cupped her cheek and his thumb rubbed against her cheekbone. "Please don't shut me out, Mara. We've become friends and... I'd really hate to lose that."

Mara puffed out a laugh. "Friends don't do what we just did on my couch, Skywalker."

But that might have been the wrong thing to say. Luke's eyes darkened as if in remembrance, and a slow smile threaded across his face. The smile did strange things to her insides, her heart thudding dully in her chest as she, too, remembered.

"No," he said, stepping back to let his eyes wander down her body. "They don't." He set his clothes down and reached for the forgotten bottle of Ruge, still standing on the caf table, and poured the last bit of the rich liquid into a goblet, hers or his, she wasn't sure. He took a sip, and then offered it to her. "We could have a drink," he offered. "Talk."

Taking a deep breath, she eyed him suspiciously, feeling even more surreal than she had before, now that they were standing naked in the middle of her living room, ostensibly having a conversation. "What kind of trick are you pulling?"

"No trick." He held the goblet back up to his lips. "I'm not in your head, if that's what you're thinking. At least, not anymore."

"But you want to be," she accused.

He didn't deny it. "I think you want that, too," he said quietly.

Her ire rose again. She started to reach for his clothes, fully intending to dress him herself and march him out the door. But when she turned back, he was standing over the stained spot on her carpet. "What are you doing?" The damn man was always trying to throw her off balance.

When his eyes rose to meet hers again, it was as if he had come to some resolution, as if he had decided something, had figured out some great mystery from the stain on the floor.

And suddenly she felt very naked and trapped in his gaze. She considered him as the long moment stretched out between them. She tried to reconcile the Luke Skywalker she had come to know as a friend with the man that stood before her now. Realization dawned that he could be both men at once, that she was merely seeing another side to the man that had been her friend. And with the way he had made her feel...even with the tension between them her body was still aware of him.

He reached out a hand for her arm, and wrapped his fingers loosely around her wrist. She didn't pull away as he tugged her close, until one step further would have put her toes into the ruined section of carpet. She looked into his eyes. "What the hell is this about?"

A small smile appeared on the Jedi's face, a smile that looked far too devious for the face that held it. "Just this," he said, raising his goblet of Ruge.

She opened her mouth to speak again but didn't have the time to utter a sound as Luke turned the goblet to the side and a trickle of wine ran down her body.

.

.

.

She collapsed against him and hid her face against his throat, swallowing hard at the realization of what they had just done.

Again.

Her head rose and fell on his panting chest, but she didn't move, knowing that with movement came the need to talk about what had happened, what could happen...

Instead, she stayed still and let his hand drift lazily up and down her back as they sprawled together on the Ruge stained rug. She sighed softly, and closed her eyes. "What am I going to do with you now, Skywalker?"

He stiffened slightly under her at her whispered question, but resumed his soft touch after just a moment's hesitation. And _that _was the rub, because he had now seen not just the vulnerability of her body but that of her heart and mind, as well.

Lying in the floor across from them was the empty bottle of Ruge. Mara lay prone on Luke Skywalker's chest and wished desperately for another hard drink.

.

.

.

.

fin.

_Ahem. Methinks Alt!Mara left out quite a bit of the story when she was talking to our Lukie... ; )_


End file.
